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Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Visit state street.comim for prospectus containing this and other information. Read it carefully. SPY Subject to risks similar to those of stocks, all ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal Alps Distributors Inc. Distributor drones are playing an increasingly large role on the world stage, so we explore one public company designing batteries for the aircraft for the lingerie retailer, it turns out that the Victoria's Secret may actually be the comeback of its pink line. We survey earnings from some popular retail brands and Covering the costs of AI tech giants gathered in Washington, D.C. to sign a data center pledge with the goal of protecting consumers. But will the non binding commitment really help? Or was it just a Datacenter PR push for Thursday, March 5? It's free markets Daily and I'm Ann Berry. More market details to come. But first, the Rate Payer protection pledge that was signed by seven major tech companies yesterday in a move that the Trump administration claims will protect consumers against the cost of data centers hitting them in their utility bills. Top executives from the companies Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle XAI, which is merging with SpaceX and OpenAI, all gathered at the White House to pledge what amounts to an enormous amount of capital investment because the scope includes providing or paying for all power generation and electricity needed for their AI projects, which includes building new power stations, covering the costs of upgrading existing power delivery infrastructure. I'll come back to that in just a moment. Plus negotiating separate rate structures with utilities, hiring and training workforces from within local communities, and using their infrastructure to contribute backup power to local grids. Now this all comes off the back of intense growth in demand for electricity. Data centers consumed less than 2% of U.S. electricity before about 2020, but by 2028 that could rise to as much as 12%. So it makes sense that consumers are fearful of footing that bill. Or as President Trump said at the pledge signing, quote, data centers they need some PR help. People think that if the data center goes in, their electricity is going to go up. Now, the pledge, which had been previewed by the way, during the State of the Union address last week, is non binding, meaning it will be hard to track and to hold Big Tech accountable for information that does come out to paint a picture of their activities, but it does shine a light on a real issue and we have in fact seen real self fueling activity by Big Tech's start already. So let's take Meta Last month, and with no public hearings held, the Ohio Power Sitting board approved the construction of a 350 megawatt natural gas fired electric generation facility next to the Meta data Center in Wood County. The plant, which is called the Apollo Power generation facility, will operate behind the meter, which means it'll serve only the electric demands of the data center. It won't be physically connected to the electric power grid. Then There's Oracle and OpenAI developing off grid on site natural gas fired systems for their project Jupiter Stargate data center that's got a campus in New Mexico and they've also together got a facility in Texas. Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said basically on behalf of XAI that that company is committing to developing 1.2 gigawatts of power at the company's supercomputer site near Memphis, Tennessee, and that the facility would also provide enough backup energy to power the city of Memphis. Amazon, meanwhile, is partnered with Umatilla Electric Cooperative in Oregon in a self supply agreement where Amazon sources its own energy, including from renewable sources. Then there's Google, owned by Alphabet, partnering with Entergy ticker ETR market cap $48 billion and that's to build a 600 megawatt solar field and 350 megawatt battery storage system in Arkansas. And then we can't not talk about nuclear energy now there. Google is also funding the restart of the Dwayne Arnold nuclear facility in Iowa power its data centers, while Microsoft has partnered with Constellation Energy in a move to reopen Three Mile island nuclear plant, which was the site of a partial meltdown in 1979 that frankly iced the nuclear industry. What major industrial companies such as G Venova, Caterpillar, Siemens and Doosan are receiving equipment orders for these on site power projects? Well, let's talk a bit more about this push, because the White House is clearly doing this partly as a reaction to voter concerns about affordability. It's a topic that's expected to be top of mind in this year's midterm elections. But another aspect of this is that the administration is also keenly aware that power sits at the very heart of a global push for AI supremacy. Well, in 2025, China invested twice as much as the United States in power plants, its electric grid and energy storage, and China's centralized planning system enables it to circumvent much of the regulatory and approval process seen in America, so it's tended to be able to move much more quickly. Well, the United States also has the issue of the quality of its grid at the moment, and that's because the US Grid is large, it's complex, and it's saddled with aging transmission lines that are hugely expensive to upgrade. Utilities earn money only when regulators approve equipment upgrades, which then gives utilities the green light to pass those costs on to consumers or if the pledge works as intended, to big tech, where their data centers drive upgrade demand. So here at Brew Markets, at least, it's the utilities and regulators who will now keep on watching. Coming up, Shares in amprius took off Today we answer a listener request and dig into the earnings of the American company that design batteries for drones and Burlington. They're more than just great coats, but how great was their recent quarter? We have the latest but first a word from our sponsor, Charles Schwab. Trading at Schwab is powered by Ameritrade, unlocking the power of thinkorswim, the award winning trading platform loaded with features that let you dive deeper into the market. You can visualize your trades in new light on Think or Swim desktop with robust charting and analysis tools all while